Most HR departments don’t measure benefit of reward schemes

Nearly two-thirds of HR functions have failed to evaluate the return on their reward schemes despite current economic pressures, Personnel Today can reveal.

The Employee Rewards Watch 2009 by benefits consultancy Thomsons Online Benefits, seen exclusively by the magazine, found 60% of employers could not easily demonstrate the return on investment for their total reward spend, while nearly one-quarter (23%) admitted they did not bother measuring the effectiveness of their overall reward strategy.

The news comes despite more than half (53%) of the 523 employers surveyed acknowledging the economic climate had increased pressure to justify reward schemes.

Michael Whitfield, chief executive of Thomsons Online Benefits, said: “The current furore surrounding bonus payments presents organisations with the chance to not only rethink their reward strategy and how it can be used to engage and motivate employees through the downturn, but also to ensure it is properly documented.”